In what has been a flagship 12 months for hardcore, there are few bands which have reaped the rewards fairly like Pace. Although, saying that, there are few bands which have caught to their weapons within the face of essential acclaim fairly like Pace both. Beginning 2024 because the scene’s finest stored secret and seeing it out as award winners, future Coachella performers and viral sensations, it’s been as loopy a 12 months as any band might ask for, not to mention one which by no means anticipated to make it out of Sydney.
However it’s of their honesty, integrity and sheer love and adoration for this music that the band have discovered their method into so many individuals’s hearts and headphones. In selling all the pieces that hardcore needs to be about – expression, group and tolerance – they’ve confirmed themselves to be worthy flagbearers for the scene, and it’s nonetheless solely simply getting began.
To try to sum up all the pieces up, Rock Sound have been fortunate sufficient to seize vocalist Jem Siow for a chat throughout a second of downtime…
Rock Sound: First, it’s honest to say it has been a frantic 12 months for you. How has it been preserving the identical power flowing all through all the pieces you’ve got performed?
Jem: “The factor is, we’re a hardcore band. As intense as this 12 months has been, that is what we do. It’s the essence of what all of that is. If there’s one factor that Pace can depend on, and the elements of Pace that I can all the time vouch for, it’s the power and the eagerness. I can’t say that we have now probably the most unique music or we’re probably the most technical musicians, however each fucking night time, regardless of how drained or jetlagged we’re, we’ll all the time go laborious as fuck. There’s just one mode, with out being tacky about it. Additionally, so as to add to that, as overwhelming as all of this may be, it’s additionally the factor of goals. As a hardcore band from Sydney, enjoying reveals like we have now world wide is insane. We’ve been on tour for six months out of this 12 months, and we’re very conscious that this can be a place that no different Australian hardcore band has been in. We really feel accountable for delivering while flying our flag and representing our scene. Doing the chance justice. So, there is no such thing as a different selection than to go as laborious as we are able to for so long as you may.”
RS: How do you now look again on the start of the band’s story and evaluate it to the place you’ve got been capable of go from there? What do you keep in mind about that point?
Jem: “We began this band with such pure and humble intentions, born out of the potential that we thought we had. We began with the ambition to simply be a hardcore band in Sydney and to have the ability to placed on hardcore reveals. Combine that in with the time in our lives that we began issues, me being 27, ready the place we have now realized from loads of errors and realized quite a bit about ourselves, and also you see that we began from a spot of simply desirous to champion true authenticity. Hardcore wasn’t thought-about cool round our associates or folks in Australia once we started. However we noticed it as the good factor ever and wished to champion it. It made it simpler for us to simply accept issues as a result of we have been already on the again foot as a result of it meant that we might simply double down. We might do all the pieces we thought it needs to be performed and be precisely the model of ourselves we wished to be.”
RS: Should you aren’t beginning one thing with pure intentions, you’re already setting your self as much as fail. This has resonated with so many individuals as a result of they’ve seen simply how trustworthy it’s to who you’re and never you attempting to be one thing you’re not…
Jem: “This entire band has been an unbelievable journey, and so many classes have been realized. About myself, one another and the way to method and navigate this world. Once we launched ‘WE SEE YOU’, that was a music primarily based solely on our friendship group and the way we noticed hardcore by means of the lens we had in Sydney. Once we filmed the video for that, posted on road corners, I might see folks strolling previous and thought, ‘We’re going to finish up on Catatonic Youths, bro’. But additionally, who actually provides a fuck? That is what we do, and I believe it’s contemporary. And each single factor we have now performed, we imagine with our complete being. A few of it’s tongue in cheek, and a few is fairly obnoxious, however seeing the way it has been obtained so positively has taught me a lot. Should you settle for your self and are on a journey to search out your self and put that out into the world with none restrictions, that’s the place you create your finest artwork and probably the most significant message you may discover. I’ve spent a lot of my life looking for myself, of ticking bins I believed wanted ticking to get to a sure place. There are such a lot of causes behind that, however with this band, it was the primary time I attempted to simply accept myself for who I’m and need to be. It has come again so feverishly and so intensely.”
RS: What has it been prefer to navigate folks desirous to be part of what Pace is?
Jem: “I see what is occurring with Pace not simply being a Pace factor. It’s a hardcore factor. We pinch ourselves each day and course of it whereas nonetheless asking ourselves why it’s occurring. Why has hardcore blown up so insanely presently when it had each cause to fail? It’s purely a testomony to the entire assemble of what this subculture stands for. With that, it provides us much more duty as a result of with this sea of newcomers flooding into the scene, they need to perceive the essence of it. It’s a difficult place. The discourse for ten years main as much as Pace again dwelling was, ‘How can we get youngsters to come back to reveals? How can we get folks to start out bands? How can we get folks to care about this for the suitable causes?’ Now it has turn into, ‘How can we ensure that the tradition doesn’t turn into diluted?’”
RS: That occurs in each native scene, the doubt that comes with whether or not it’s a must to chop and alter issues to maintain up with demand. However the actuality is that you simply acquired there from marching to your personal beat, so why would you ever cease and alter that
Jem: “This band began with a mission assertion and that was to have a good time and promote hardcore tradition. That’s been the defining guideline, the metric, the goal from day one and it’s what we use to navigate each circumstance that we discover ourselves in. This band has been attempting to embody the spirit of hardcore as purely as we are able to from the start, and once I take into consideration what which means, it’s about humanity. It’s about realness. That has made it simpler for us to exist inside this. We’re not good folks or these pop stars or manufactured rock stars who’ve a handbook for appearing and behaving. We don’t have many figures from Australia which were on this place earlier than us. We’re simply associates which are in a challenge collectively. We don’t declare to know all the pieces; we all know what we all know. That has influenced each resolution we have now made, from how we rolled out our album and the way we have now curated the reveals we play, the charities we donate to or the shirts we put on on stage. Every thing is one thing we take into consideration and deliberate while falling again on the data that we have now. That, to me, is what hardcore is. Channelling what I do know to be actual into what we’re making.
“We’re nonetheless rising and studying, however what you see is what you get. That’s why we put a flute in ‘THE FIRST TEST’. I’m a flute participant and a flute instructor; I’ve performed for 14 years earlier than this and have a level in flute efficiency. I did that as a result of after highschool, I didn’t know what I wished to do other than music, however I couldn’t play guitar, and I might play the flute. I’m an Asian man with no tattoos. I’ve a group of plushies on my couch at dwelling. I educate youngsters to play ‘Scorching Cross Buns’ each day. I put on ramen socks. Folks say that we’re the toughest hardcore band on the market proper now, however you don’t even know, you understand? Folks will make up issues to criticise us about as nicely, and that’s effective as a result of I don’t anticipate you to know for those who’re not on this. To be hardcore is to not be afraid of who you’re, and you set it on the market. And we’ll double down on that as we carry on rising.”
RS: You end up having to double down on that extra so when what you’re doing stretches exterior of the viewers you have been initially concentrating on. You point out the flute solo in ‘THE FIRST TEST’, which has now been seen by individuals who don’t even know what hardcore is. These moments are vital but in addition aren’t what outline you, they usually by no means ought to…
Jem: “It’s surreal to see that. It’s surreal to see this band be in conversations that it by no means ought to have been. I’m grateful, however it’s so humorous. On the identical time, some folks aren’t going to know what any of that is. I don’t anticipate them to know it. It’s laborious to know all of this. However the one factor that can all the time be the guiding gentle shall be our mission assertion. Folks could make up no matter they need and take all of it nonetheless they need, however I’ve by no means ever as soon as performed one thing and felt like I’ve compromised my values. It’s all the time there as a result of we care and know what we stand for. Persons are reacting to 10 seconds of a reel or a headline of an article; that’s all good with me. I’m fascinated by this 24 hours a day, seven days per week. I’m considering all the pieces to do with Pace and to do with hardcore each second of each day, bro. I’ve in all probability thought of this longer than anybody else, and even then, I’m nonetheless attempting to determine it out although I’m dwelling it. However I belief that the story we’re telling, once we look again on it in 5 or ten years, shall be made extra sense of as time goes on. However one of the simplest ways to speak it can all the time be at a present. That’s one of the simplest ways for somebody to get what Pace is about.”
RS: How has it been seeing folks take in Pace from completely different angles? From supporting Knocked Free within the US to seeing the expansion at Outbreak within the UK, what have these numerous vessels for channelling Pace taught you?
Jem: “Actually, it’s a loopy factor to mirror on as a complete. With out sounding overly assured or cocky, the fact is that Pace seems to be a gateway band for lots of latest folks. The people who find themselves coming present from all over; that is their first-ever hardcore present. They’re telling us that is their first hardcore present, and we’re having conversations with individuals who would by no means have heard of our band in any other case. There are individuals who like Pace who additionally don’t learn about different hardcore bands. So we have now a duty to nurture the tradition in the suitable method due to that. That’s been an important factor. The primary live performance I ever went to was Parkway Drive. I used to be a metalhead with facet fringe and checkered Vans. They’d three hardcore bands supporting them. The primary time I noticed a spin kick. It was the primary time I noticed folks dressing as regular folks enjoying energy chords on stage with none theatrics. That shit ruined my life, I used to be a hardcore child from there. So now I’m in a hardcore band opening for a metalcore tour, and youngsters are going to come back and expertise the identical issues I did for the primary time. If 5% of the viewers walks away liking it, then I would like to indicate them what it’s all about. We have to present them the way to carry themselves on this tradition in the suitable method. It’s so vital to us that folks know that this isn’t about any form of clout. This isn’t about cash or fame or any form of rock star bullshit. We acquired into this as a result of my associates and I cherished the music and magnificence and wished to make good recollections with that love.”
RS: That’s the place longevity comes from. It’s why you’ll nonetheless be right here in 5 years, and so many different bands disappear into the ether. You’re simply doing what feels proper, not letting any second cross you by and having fun with the experience as a result of with out that, what’s the purpose?
Jem: “The aim of it will all the time stay the identical. Although we have been rocking as much as 100 cap rooms in my $1000 automotive a few years in the past, and now we’re hitting venues in a bus with a driver, the basis continues to be the identical. Wherever we’re in a 12 months’s time, if this retains on getting greater and greater or the momentum stops, it doesn’t fucking matter. We’re simply going to be a hardcore band. This band was solely alleged to play to our friendship stage; it was by no means meant to succeed in additional than that.”
RS: So, what would you say you’re most pleased with that 2024 has represented for Pace? From the songs you’ve launched to the locations you’ve got been to the issues you’ve got achieved, what stands out?
Jem: “I’m pleased with the religion I’ve in my associates and the religion that I’ve in myself. All of us stop our jobs on the finish of final 12 months to totally decide to this as a result of we knew we had a lot touring forward. It was nearly do or die for us due to that, we had no different selection. And for all of us, that required a lot belief in one another. The longest tour we had performed earlier than this 12 months had been two weeks. This 12 months has been six months of being on the street. The primary tour of this 12 months was three months straight. We didn’t know what it could be like leaping into this life-style, even with how we’re finest associates. We have now lived again dwelling, and we have now households and plans for the longer term that aren’t meant to be wrapped up inside being a full-time touring hardcore band. However life takes you the place it needs to, and it’s a must to belief in your values and what you understand is correct in your coronary heart. And that has been probably the most important lesson I’m most pleased with. As a result of, to this point, it has labored out.”
